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Faith/World/Sects/Vizierial Order
|text= Vizierial Order __NoTOC__ The Vizierial Order is a sect of spellworkers, oft called sorcerers, whose Way involves consuming a special gem called violatite. Violatite Violatite is a form of magicite. It is a sapphire or amethyst (or any similar-looking bluish or purplish stone) believed to be infused with the tormented souls of the dead. (As opposed to magicite, which is a similar stone infused with a soul in general). The key here is torment or ‘violation’, from which the type of stone gets its name. Once infused, the violatite emanates a dark, purplish light. As with all enchanted objects, violatite only has its power because its practitioners believe it does. Blood Ritual The belief behind violatite is that one can absorb a person’s powers along with their soul into a shard of violatite by stabbing them with it, so that their blood is in contact with the stone at the moment of their death. The gemstone has to be able to pierce skin, so is generally teardrop cut or marquise cut. Generally the death is caused by another means (the gemstones generally being too small). The Vizierian practitioner seeks to inflict the most pain and anguish possible to his victim right at the moment of the victim’s death so as to maximize the power absorbed by the violatite. The result is a stone containing the powers (domain) of the victim. In this sense it is a parasitic Way. Generally the victim is carefully chosen, and a plan for their abduction carefully arranged; the victim has to be kept alive until the ritual, and of course the practitioner must be able to carry out the abduction without being noticed if he is to be able to perform the ritual without unwelcome interruption. Once the violatite has been ‘charged’, the practitioner (or maybe someone else) will consume the violatite. Sorcerer’s Torment Upon consuming the violatite containing the victim’s soul, the eater will have multiple souls in one body. Thereafter, nightly they will experience nightmares, where they engage in struggle against the souls of their victims, in what is called Sorcerer’s Torment. The nightmare begins with them in bed their actual bodies went to sleep in, and the victim may approach from any direction; all the objects in the real world are also in this nightmare and can be used in their struggle, generally combat. Note that the victims have powers which they can also use; this after all is why the eater ate the violatite to begin with. Both may feel pain from suffering injuries in the nightmare, even though the pains don’t manifest in the real world. Should either be killed, the nightmare resets, resulting in an endless cycle. The multiple souls remain trapped in this nightmare realm until they naturally wake up, only to restart the next time the eater goes to sleep. Sorcerer’s Torment is very tiring and can easily doom people with weaker wills, as they cannot go to sleep to rest - they sleep for less since they fear it, and what sleep they do get does not replenish them. Faced with the prospect of this endless struggle, usually, eventually one or the other soul will give up. By default the eater’s own soul controls his body and his own innate abilities; but if he submits, the new soul possesses his body in his waking moments - though the two souls can fight for control again the next night. If the new soul submits, the eater can gain the use of the victim’s soul’s powers - though the new soul can refuse to do so the next night. Because of this nightly Torment, an eater who already has powers - especially innate powers - will have the advantage, as they can more readily subdue the consumed soul. It is less risky for them. It is also less risky to consume the soul of a person with weaker powers. One can consume multiple souls in this way, but then must face off against all of them in each round of the Torment, which makes it more risky. }}